Are theater owners complete meatheads?
Here are some observations (maybe a few are even facts):
1. Movie theaters today enjoy the exclusive right to show a product that isn't available (legally) anywhere else, for a certain period of time: first-run films.
2. They're going to fight to preserve that exclusive for as long as possible, negotiating deals with studios that are clearer about how long the exclusive will last. (IE, when does the studio plan to release the movie to DVD, the Net, or cable?)
3. Any business would do the same thing, because being the only game in town is a nice competitive advantage.
4. But eventually, to combat piracy and make the most of their advertising dollars, some studios may decide to release some movies in multiple formats at the same time.
5. Theaters will continue to boycott these, but may not be able to hold that line forever. Some of them will be hits (unlike `Bubble') that people would pay to see in a theater.
4. The smartest theater owners are already thinking about how to compete in a world where some movies are released simultaneously in multiple media. In that world, the theater becomes what I'd call a `rentable living room.' It performs tasks that your living room can't perform, even if you can purchase a fresh release on Friday via a click of your video-on-demand remote control:
- It's not your living room.
- The screen is bigger.
- The picture is better thanks to digital projection.
- The movie may be in 3-D. Seats may rumble. There may be speakers built into your headrest.
- You may choose to see the movie in a giant theater with a Godzilla-sized screen and lots of fellow movie-goers.
- Or you may want to pay a bit extra and see it in a small screening room with a group of your friends. You'll get to sit on leather couches and lounge chairs, order platters of food from a menu, and probably even select the movie your group wants to see from a vast catalog of titles, new and old. (Not to mention that you'll be free to get up and perform a little movie karaoke if you want.)
- Just as Borders (and many other chain and indie bookstores) have an endless series of authors parading through, theaters will find a way to regularly bring in actors, directors, screenwriters, producers, and film profs to talk about the movies that are playing.
- Exclusive content (live concerts, Broadway shows, motivational seminars by Tony Robbins, and the like) will still be available
- Theaters will offer real loyalty programs. Since it's to their benefit for you to come more than once a month, why not discount the second ticket you buy in any month by a buck or two? The third time, perhaps they let you bring a friend for free...
- Theaters will link up with film schools and indie filmmakers in their community, offering a venue where they can show their work. These may be one-off screenings, but the content will likely have an audience locally and a built-in promotional engine.
- Theaters will sponsor participatory competitions that go from week to week, bringing people back. These don't necessarily have to be video game competitions. They could be `name that movie' or `name that actor' competitions, or `American Idol'-styleface-offs among local filmmakers: whose short movie is best? Who can make the best movie in 48 hours?
Some theaters are already dabbling in some of this stuff. (They're not stupid -- really.) But expect to see a lot more.
Your thoughts on what you'd like to see your neighborhood cinema doing?
(Somewhat related link: Carmike Cinemas is one of the largest chains to commit to a full-on digital cinema roll-out. Their senior execs spoke this week at a Bank of America conference in New York.)
6 Comments:
Great points!
One thing that I sincerely hope they do NOT do is think that people want an even louder sound system. Movies are TOO LOUD. People could actually hear the cool digital sound better if they ramped the volume down a bit. Movies are literally playing at ear damaging levels. Even people who go to concerts regularily are complaining.
By
The Unknown Filmmaker, at 4:47 AM
quote from
http://kinoparty.blogspot.com
Cinema as "rentable living room"
In his piece from March 30, 2006 Scott Kirsner asks in his CinemaTech blog Are theater owners complete meatheads? by discussing a recent Wired interview with AMC CEO Peter Brown. It's the issue of upcoming simultanous releases of home media and theatrical distribution. In his list of oberservations Scott questions options for the cinema industriy on how to react on the business menace.
His last point is:
The smartest theater owners are already thinking about how to compete in a world where some movies are released simultaneously in multiple media. In that world, the theater becomes what I'd call a `rentable living room.' It performs tasks that your living room can't perform, even if you can purchase a fresh release on Friday via a click of your video-on-demand remote control...
What then follows is a dedicated list of options and it is basicly what you would think of a good film festival: exclusive content, loyalty programs, film schools and indie connections, audience competitions, authors and creative staff plus celebrities show up. So acording to Scott, the future of cinema is a perenial film festival which live people and canned content plus exclusive live content (live concerts, Broadway shows, seminars).
Funny enough Scott does not consider to make something honest out of his "rentable living room" idea. I had the idea of "rent-a-cinema" nine years before (and published it in Weltwunder der Kinematographie, Volume 4.1997). It was too early, for sure! ... Und funny enough, our Potsdam, Germany, art house cinema Thalia, located in Potsdam studio city quarter Babelsberg, sells the "most expensive cinema ticket of the town". For about 150 bucks you rent the cinema and you bring your content with your folks along and you'll get your "rentable living room" delivered for real and make the live people party by yourself, on the big screen. -- Is it so hard to understand whats going on?
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By
Aaron Keogh, at 9:20 AM
Listened to most of the Carmike / Bank of America thing.
FASCINATING that this self-described Small Mostly Southern Town theatre chain is gonna beat everyone
else in switching to digital.
Granted, they have "only" some 350 theatres but
to have all the screens in all those theatres
converted to digital in two years is pretty impressive.
That said, I find it sad and quite disturbing that their ultimate stated goal is to have 35mm projection available in only 25 % of their screens.
That seems very premautre . . . .First, I would
doubt that EVERY new film will be available in digital
within two years . . . . . , second, it limits the showing of older films and lastly, it would be sad not to have film prints avilable . . "just cuz."
Another disturbing thought is that as good as
2K digital can be and as much better than 2K that 4K could be [ from the one test I saw ] THE BEST DIGITAL PROJECTION STILL IS NOT AS GOOD AS THE BEST FILM PROJECTION.
Please let me assure you that a premier showing of a second generation 35 mm print on the 80 foot screens of The Westwood, The Directors Guild or the AMPAS Theatres in LA will kick digital's ass and kick it HARD . . . . . and will continue to kick digital's ass for years to come.
That said; of course most theatres simply aren't as good as those LA screens.
For me, the best POTENTIAL thing about digital is that is could -- operative word is COULD -- improve the quality of the AVERAGE theatre experience.
That would be good.
Of course, if the theatres get as sloppy
with digital maintenance and especiaily screen brightness as they are today with film projection
much of the potential for improved image
quality will be wasted.
Sigh.
I just wish exhibitors would take image quality
IN GENERAL more importantly.
It's really very simple: BLOW PEOPLE AWAY WITH IMAGE QUALITY AND THEY WILL COME BACK . . . . . whether they are conscious of the reason or not.
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